Community activists and businesses in Boston’s Chinatown are pushing back against a partial weekend shutdown of the Orange Line of the MBTA.
Riders who rely on the T will be stuck dealing with yet another partial shutdown for the next two weekends, this time on the Orange and Green lines.
The goal is to get closer to eliminating slow zones for the trains.
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Orange Line service will be suspended between North Station and Ruggles while track work and other construction work is done at the Government Center Garage. Riders will have to use shuttles from North Station to Government Center.
They can take the Green Line between Government Center and Copley, and shuttles between Ruggles and Copley.
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The T said the closures for the weekends of Feb. 4-5 and Feb. 18-19 are "[b]ecause of the continued demolition of the Government Center Garage by private developer HYM Construction." But it also gives the T a chance to "perform additional track work, including the replacement of rail fasteners between Back Bay and Ruggles stations," the T said.
While some riders are just frustrated with the shutdowns no matter when they happen, others think the T could do a better job strategically planning out service interruptions when fewer people are relying on public transportation.
"It's been a long time coming so hopefully this time it should work," said Johnny Banks of Boston.
"I think they should just pick one certain month and do it all at one time and get it over with so it would stop the headaches, and people wouldn't have to change their schedule, and change and make different arrangements," he said.
Michael White of Lynn said, "I think they should do it in the middle of the night, during the week, instead of doing it when the events are, when it's least used is when it should be shut down…doesn't it make sense to do it when it's off."
It's unclear whether the work over the next two weekends will be the last work needed to get rid of all of the slow zones.
State House News Service contributed to this report.
